Parallel Heterogeneous Integration of III-V Devices on Silicon Photonic Chips

Lead Research Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Inst of Photonics

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description The focus of this project is the integration of planar optical devices from different material wafers into single systems, harnessing expertise in hybrid device integration at the University of Strathclyde and nanofabrication capabilities at the University of Glasgow. The key findings so far can be summarised as:
i) Design and fabrication of robust III-V semiconductor membranes for printing onto host substrates
ii) Design and fabrication of silicon microring membrane devices through micro assembly
iii) Development of novel alignment procedures that enable printing position accuracy of <100nm for a range of single devices including membranes, resonators and nanowire lasers
iv) Statistical analysis of devices printed using serial and parallel print processes.
iv) Demonstration of hybrid material optical device integration, in particular, III-V AlGaAs and diamond micro-resonators integrated with silicon photonic integrated circuits
v) Demonstration of optical non-linearity in transfer printed AlGaAs micro-resonators on silicon
vi) Demonstration of parameter and spatial binning of NW laser devices
vii) Demonstration of dense integration of multiple materials on a single substrate (i.e. in a footprint comparable to the device size).
Exploitation Route This transfer of membrane waveguide optics opens up a whole new class of hybrid optical devices for applications across a wide range of disciplines from quantum optics to biomedical sensing. Our findings will enable new devices to be designed by the wider optics community that were not previously possible. IP protection has been applied for on the transfer printing alignment processes. This underpins new capital equipment development that can be exploited through licensing or spin out generation.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Electronics

Energy

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology
 
Description Underpinning research has led to publication of patent documentation and exploitation plan with non-academic partner. Policy documentation for government partners based on research expertise in this area.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology
Impact Types Economic

Policy & public services
 
Description 'Hetero-print': A holistic approach to transfer-printing for heterogeneous integration in manufacturing
Amount £5,541,652 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R03480X/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2018 
End 05/2024
 
Description Canada UK Commercialising Quantum Technology Programme: CR&D
Amount £515,142 (GBP)
Funding ID 10077950 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 09/2025
 
Description Hybrid chip-scale optical platform for efficient frequency comb generation
Amount £146,610 (GBP)
Funding ID DSTLX1000146956 
Organisation Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 10/2021
 
Description Hybrid photonic integrated circuits for multiplexed quantum emitters
Amount £120,731 (GBP)
Organisation Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 03/2023
 
Description Parallel Micro-assembly of Quantum Cascade Lasers on Germanium (Future Photonics Hub Innovation Fund)
Amount £54,108 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2017 
End 06/2018
 
Description QT Assemble: Integrated Quantum Technology Programme
Amount £7,363,560 (GBP)
Funding ID 50414 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2020 
End 08/2023
 
Description Senior Research Fellowship in Chipscale Photonics
Amount £455,347 (GBP)
Organisation Royal Academy of Engineering 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2020 
End 08/2025
 
Description Ultrafast Terahertz Polarimetry Enabled by Semiconductor Nanowire Sensors
Amount £295,821 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/W017067/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 08/2026
 
Description Zero-change manufacturing of photonic interconnects for silicon electronics
Amount £509,738 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/V004859/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2021 
End 05/2024
 
Title Nanoscale alignment for transfer printing 
Description Using optical alignment correlation techniques a method was developed to align structures on different material membranes to better than 100nm accuracy using a direct print tool. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact A journal paper is in preparation on this technique. It will underpin the next stage goals of the project. 
 
Title Data for All-optical tuning of a diamond micro-disk resonator on silicon 
Description 10.15129/a5cf064c-1e69-4a46-b688-4472945befc8 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact None currently 
URL https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/data-for-all-optical-tuning-of-a-diamond-micro-disk-reso...
 
Title Data for: "High accuracy transfer printing of single-mode membrane silicon photonic devices" 
Description "Data sets corresponding to figures in article contribution for optics express titled above. Files details available in the readme file. Data embargo 05/07/18" 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact . 
 
Title Data for: "High precision integrated photonic thermometry enabled by a transfer printed diamond resonator on a GaN waveguide chip" 
Description All data is tabulated in text files, with file names pertaining to the corresponding figures in the paper. An extra file named "Fig9_Read" file is included to explain the data contained in the Fig9 subset, which is a mix of transmission spectra and time trace data. The rest of the data can be easily understoon from the file names, and in each case, simply consists of two columns: wavelength and detector voltage, from which transmission spectra can be reconstructed. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Dataset underpinning research publication 
URL https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/f7404ca9-fd0e-4ef6-a8ad-8372f0ff52db
 
Title Data for: "Hybrid integration of an evanescently coupled AlGaAs micro-disk resonator with a silicon waveguide by nanoscale-accurate transfer printing" 
Description "Dataset related to the submission: Hybrid integration of an evanescently coupled AlGaAs micro-disk resonator with a silicon waveguide by nanoscale-accurate transfer printing. All the data can be read using Microsoft Office. Further details on the individual figures are available from the README file provided. " 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact . 
 
Title Data for: "Nanoscale accurate heterogeneous integration of waveguide devices by transfer printing" 
Description "Dataset corresponding to measured optical transmission spectrum of all-pass filters (figures 2.a and b) of the IEEE Photonics Conference 2018 submission. Data embargo until 04/10/18" 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact . 
 
Title Data for: "Spatially dense integration of micron-scale devices from multiple materials on a single chip via transfer-printing" 
Description Supporting dataset for the publication "Spatially dense integration of micron-scale devices from multiple materials on a single chip via transfer-printing" 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Dataset underpinning research publication 
URL https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/10070904-bb8a-433c-875d-cdd5e6bcda95
 
Title Data set for Characterisation, selection and micro-assembly of nanowire laser systems 
Description "Data sets corresponding to figures in article contribution for Nano Letters titled above. Files details available in the readme file. " 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact None currently 
URL https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/data-for-characterisation-selection-and-micro-assembly-o...
 
Title Data set for Transfer printing of AlGaAs-on-SOI micro-disk resonators for selective mode coupling and low-power non-linear processes 
Description "Data sets corresponding to figures in article contribution for optics letters titled above. Files details available in the readme file. " 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact None currently 
URL https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/data-for-transfer-printing-of-algaas-on-soi-micro-disk-r...
 
Title Research data supporting 'High-Throughput Electrical Characterisation of Nanomaterials From Room to Cryogenic Temperatures' 
Description Measurements are performed using electrical methods described in the paper. Data to generate all plots in the associated publication are contained within the zipped file as separate '.txt' files. The README.txt file contains information about each separate file. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/311600
 
Description Collaboration with the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics 
Organisation Fraunhofer Society
Department Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution A novel nanoscale alignment technique for direct transfer printing was developed by the University of Strathclyde. Through joint studentship funding with the Fraunhofer CAP, this capability was developed into an accessible computer controlled system to allow all users of the facility access to the technique.
Collaborator Contribution Fraunhofer CAP provided studentship funding, supervisory time and expertise in automated systems.
Impact The outcome of this stage of the collaboration was an accessible computer controlled system for high accuracy printing alignment.
Start Year 2017
 
Title METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR USE IN THE SPATIAL REGISTRATION OF OBJECTS 
Description A method for use in the spatial registration of first and second objects comprises fixing the first and second objects to the same motion control stage in an unknown spatial relationship, using an imaging system to acquire an image of the first object, determining a position and orientation of the first object in a frame of reference of the motion control stage based at least in part on the acquired image of the first object, using the imaging system to acquire an image of the second object, and determining a position and orientation of the second object in the frame of reference of the motion control stage based at least in part on the acquired image of the second object. The method may be used in the spatial registration of first and second objects and, in particular though not exclusively, for use in the spatial registration of optical or electronic components relative to one another, or for use in the alignment of a first object such as an optical or electronic component relative to a second object such as a feature, a structure, a target area or a target region defined on a substrate or a wafer. 
IP Reference WO2022008903 
Protection Patent application published
Year Protection Granted 2022
Licensed Commercial In Confidence
Impact Licensing and development of patent covered by commercial in confidence